


All the Red Skull's Men

by chromanebula



Series: The Gates of HYDRA [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Journalism, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, But I Will Warn for Disturbing Chapters, Canon Divergence - Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Eventual Romance, F/M, Freeform, Fusion - Spotlight (2015), Gen, Iron Man 3 Compliant, Needs a Beta Reader, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Reinterpretations of Canon, Tags Probably Will Change, dark themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-24 22:23:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17712749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chromanebula/pseuds/chromanebula
Summary: Ever since the Ultron affair blew over, things have calmed down for SHIELD. The heroes are rising up to face their challenges: thieves, traffickers, terrorists, tabloids. Every week some pundit or group pops up claiming that SHIELD is behind some grand conspiracy to kill all the non-sheeple, and every week the team has a collective laugh about it. But when the allegations start hitting from close to home, the heroes have no choice but to do a little off-the-books spying against their own organization--and uncover a web of dirty secrets too awful and entrenched to imagine. As the survivors struggle with their experiences in light of this knowledge, the heroes must venture beyond the structures of SHIELD to truly be a shield exposing these diabolical schemes and stopping them from being carried out any further. Captain America: The Winter Soldier rewrite.





	All the Red Skull's Men

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, readers! In case you couldn't tell from the tags, this fic is a fusion of Captain America: The Winter Soldier with similar current events. I know that they are very dark, and I do my best to treat them with the appropriate gravitas while keeping the story engaging. To the extent that it is a coping fic, it is mostly designed for those going through crises of faith as a result of current events. It features (I hope) funny, awesome and heartwarming moments to both make the story engaging and help my readers (and myself) not lose hope in the face of all that has happened. It is rated "T" in these beginning chapters; depending on how dark/graphic the HYDRA scenes get and on how steamy the romance gets, I may bump it up to an "M". But rest assured, I will leave some things to the imagination. In short: some awful $#!+ happens in this story, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Sharon was getting sick of this. 

Ten weeks ago it had been breaking into the public water system to contaminate it with mind-control chemicals. Nine weeks ago it had been holding the Secretary of Defense hostage. Eight weeks ago it had been breaking into the SHIELD weapons vault to steal the R&D projects. Seven weeks ago it had been building a giant laser cannon to tear up Long Island. Six weeks ago it had been...you get the idea. Ever since the whole Ultron affair blew up in Sokovia, HYDRA had been taking advantage of the Avengers’ preoccupation with destroying Ultron’s backup copies to raise mayhem. But unfortunately for them, Strucker and Viper seemed to have gotten all their ideas from James Bond and Mission Impossible movies. How else could it possibly have occurred to them to build an earthquake machine in the middle of upstate New York?

Nevertheless, SHIELD was there, monitoring the bad guys and stopping them from carrying out their evil schemes. Clint Barton was there, picking off goons from afar and firing trick arrows to shatter windows and latch onto handles. Sharon Carter was there, flushing out buildings and wrecking HYDRA’s machinery. And--for the first time since Ultron had become a problem ~~\--~~ Steve Rogers was there, working on a non-Ultron-related mission. That, in Sharon’s eyes, was the best part. She’d “reluctantly accepted” Director Fury’s assignment a couple years ago to watch Steve’s...ah...back, but the man didn’t need saving. Well...most of the time. She’d been forced to expose herself when a crazy fangirl had broken into his suite at night, trying to kidnap him, and Captain Boy Scout had been too damn chivalrous to do anything to stop her. But it was all right; stopping that poacher had been SHIELD business. Definitely SHIELD business. Just like her staring in Steve’s direction to look for enemies nearby was definitely SHIELD busine ~~\--~~

“On your left!” Steve shouted as he knocked over a mook that was about to stab her with one of HYDRA’s brand-new laser knives. Curses. Right now, she needed to be focused on fighting and fleeing, and  _ not _ any other primitive functions. She swung her pistol, knocking out another mook next to her. Then she started shooting, hitting about ten more. She fired a final shot, hitting the control panel of the half-finished earthquake machine. There. That should render it unusable until SHIELD brought in the engineering (or in this case, de-engineering) team. Now they had to go find ~~\--~~ and hopefully capture ~~\--~~ the commander. The downside of HYDRA resembling TV and movie villains was that Baron von Strucker always managed to get away. 

There was just one problem: while Sharon and Steve had been dealing with the goons inside the warehouse, reinforcements had arrived outside. Clint had commandeered a guard tower and was shooting down goons as fast as he could, but there was only one of him and a lot of them. And, to make matters worse, his quiver was running low. He would probably have to come down and fight hand-to-hand pretty soon. So would Sharon, eventually; only Steve had a weapon that couldn’t run out of ammunition. Sharon had brought extra bullets just in case, but maybe she should have taken Melinda May’s advice and brought a larger squad of agents to begin with. 

Ah, well. Too late for that now. She went onto the floor with guns blazing, mowing down HYDRA minions left and right. But they really were like heads on the eponymous monster. Every time she hit one, two more would appear in his (or her? HYDRA  _ was _ an equal opportunity employer) place. She was getting desperate. Fire, duck, fire, cover. Clint and Steve were trying, covering her so that she could reload when her magazine emptied. But she was down to her last set. Then…

More shots rang out in the distance, of a type not previously heard from any of the HYDRA minions. “COVER!” she shouted at Steve, hoping desperately to keep everybody alive long enough for reinforcements to arrive. But it was too late; she heard the scream of agony that could only mean a hit. Forgetting the remaining threats around her, Sharon turned to Steve with a desperate cry, hoping that the Super Soldier Serum would be able to lessen the impact. She was hoping against hope, now, as she saw the blood all over him. But…

“I’m fine, Carter! It’s those HYDRA goons who are in trouble!” She looked around and, lo and behold, Steve was right: they were being pounded, dropping left and right. The tide had been turned when three mysterious strangers mounted the overhanging cliff, firing both regular bullets and heavy artillery shells. They kept firing while Steve, Sharon and Clint helped out, Sharon and Clint now turning to hand-to-hand combat. Eventually the field was cleared of active combatants, leaving Steve to turn to the strangers: a skinny man with bronze-colored skin and short black hair, a bulkier man with ruddy skin and no hair, and a black woman with half her hair shorn short and the other half in short braids on the side. All three were wearing rugged clothing ~~\--~~ blacks, khakis, greens ~~\--~~ and combat boots. And none of them appeared to be in any mood for games. Then he spoke to them: “Thank you for helping us to defeat HYDRA today. We were sent to first stop the earthquake machine, and then to capture Baron von Strucker. Let’s get on that second part.” 

“Ha! Like  _ that _ ’ll work,” snorted the bulky man. “We’re SAWS. The Survivors’ Alliance of Winter Soldiers. We want to see the end of HYDRA as much as you say you do, but we’re not that stupid. Let me guess, you three are with SHIELD, aren’t you?” 

Steve, Sharon and Clint all opened their mouths to reply, but the black woman spoke first, venom dripping from her voice. “Carry out your little mission today, now that your reinforcements have arrived.” She gestured behind them, and sure enough, a SHIELD quinjet was landing with a team of SpecOps agents. “But ~~\--~~ you mark my words ~~\--~~ you and your entire criminal organization  _ will _ get your comeuppance for what you have done to us.” Then she and the other two took off. 

Some of the SpecOps agents got out to guard the perimeter while another team, along with Steve, Sharon and Clint, climbed the main tower. He was such a coward that they knew he would still be up there, not willing to risk death even to escape via lower ground. They snapped the handcuffs around his wrists, dragged him out to the quinjet, and took off. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please, leave feedback so that I know how I'm doing, both in terms of the story concept and in terms of the actual writing. I plan to update on weekends, but because I'm a busy student (18 credits), there may be late chapters sometimes. Sorry.


End file.
